


Running For Second

by EntreNous



Category: Speed Racer (2008)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-12-25
Updated: 2008-12-25
Packaged: 2017-12-26 08:04:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/963553
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EntreNous/pseuds/EntreNous
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Speed Racer knows Racer X isn't his brother.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Running For Second

Speed Racer knows there's no reason to think Racer X is really his brother Rex.

It's not just because how crazy it sounded when Trixie said it back to him, the wacky idea that Rex could have faked his own death to fool Speed and everyone else in their family. No, Racer X isn't Rex for the simple reason that the two of them don't look anything alike.

That night at the track after Speed learned the awful news about Taejo's betrayal, Racer X took his mask off to show Speed a face he had never seen before. That was the clincher if ever there was one. Because Speed knows Rex's face by heart; the ups and downs and curves of every one of Rex's features are as familiar to him as his own.

He doesn't even need the snapshot of Rex he takes into every race (heck, that he takes with him every time he suits up and climbs into the Mach 6 for a turn around the track) to remember exactly what Rex looks like. All he has to do is think about how Rex would appear leaning against the car when he picked Speed up from school, or how Rex used to grin at him as he worked with Pops in the garage.

No, Speed will never forget Rex's face, not when he can imagine himself right there in Rex's room that last night when Rex looked him in the eye, tossed him the keys to the Mach 5, and left him behind forever.

Never mind that Racer X races just like his brother, that he and Speed work together like they're two of a kind. He has already shown Speed -- he just doesn't have Speed's brother's face.

Still, Racer X seems so familiar that it's hard for Speed to stop thinking about him, about the way he takes curves and revs an engine and grips a wheel, until Racer X's face comes almost as easily to his mind's eye as his brother's does.

Except, of course, for how Racer X isn't his brother.

*~*~*

Racer X is a mysterious racer with an unknown past; he isn't Speed Racer's brother Rex.

So it shouldn't be a problem when, four years after Speed first wins the Grand Prix and the second time Speed races the Casa Cristo with Racer X on his team, something unexpected happens between them.

It isn't why Speed agrees to take part in the Casa Cristo of course, any hope that he'll see Racer X again or have more of a chance to get to know him. He's only agreed to race this time to help Inspector Detector uncover the shady dealings of a corporation building shoddy engines for unsuspecting drivers. It just so happens that Racer X is part of Speed's team again.

But Speed knows it isn't exactly a coincidence either, that he and Racer X would team together again when lives are on the line and the honor of racing is at stake.

"You just work so well together," the Inspector murmured when he came to talk to Speed about taking part, and Speed gave a quick nod in agreement.

They do work well together, a surprising fact for any men who have to work together suddenly when they come from a sport known for being solitary. No matter how many mechanics or spotters or techs a guy has on his team, when he's behind the wheel, Speed knows, it's all up to him. If he hadn't grown up racing with his family surrounding him, he probably would have thought it was lonely driving completely on his own, with only himself to depend on when other cars were exploding into parts all around him on the track, other drivers doing their damnedest to take him down no matter what the race.

When he drives alongside Racer X, though, Speed knows someone else has his back. He can feel someone else watching out for him and depending on him, not just a voice on the other end of a transistor or a civilian waiting at the finish line, but someone else right there out in the thick of the race. He has only driven on a team the one time, of course, but the way it felt stays with him so strongly that he knows how it will go driving with Racer X, same way he does when it comes to drive on a familiar track he can picture with his eyes closed.

Speed knows when the Inspector tells him Racer X will be by his side that they'll win and get to the bottom of this thing. If he has to take down several corrupted teams all working for criminals and shady fixers, better to work with Racer X than with any of a dozen other racers that Speed knows. Speed trusts Racer X like no other driver he's met in competitive racing. He trusts him like he's family.

When they see each other before the race, though, as the Inspector's technicians are explaining the latest defensive mechanisms added to their cars, Speed happens to glance at Racer X. The other man wears his mask and sunglasses like he always does when he's racing or he's in public, and Speed realizes with a jolt that he is one of the only people in the world who know what Racer X looks like underneath that mask. His cheeks burn, and when Racer X looks toward him with a tilt of his head, he looks away, remembering how Racer X looked that night at the track.

Racer X might have moves like Speed's, and they might drive like they know how the other operates, but when Speed thinks about him, it's not like how he thinks about family.

*~*~*

Rex Racer died after racing the Casa Cristo 5000 years ago, so there's not a chance in the world that Racer X could be the brother Speed remembers.

Speed reminds himself of this when he's reeling from too much champagne at the party following their team's victory. He knows from Sparky and Pops that you're supposed to drink milk in the winner's circle, but after the Casa Cristo there's only alcohol, and plenty of it. One person after another congratulates him, every one of them pressing a drink into his hand until Racer X pretty much has to carry him limping down the long hallways to take him to his room and put him to bed.

"Stay," he says with a grin when Racer eases him onto the mattress. "Hang out for a while."

Racer X laughs. He's still wearing the tight leather racing suit he always has, and his mask and glasses are fixed in place, but there's a soft glow outlining his form as the light from the room beyond shadows against his body. "Hang out and watch you snore? No thanks, Speedy; better just sleep this one off on your own."

Speed raises himself up on his elbows to peer up at Racer X. "I don't snore," he says at last. "Well, okay, maybe I do snore," he corrects himself. "But there's no way you know that I snore, right?"

"I have to get back to Minx," Racer X says finally. Speed scrunches his eyes until he remembers. Minx is one of the Inspector's scientists.

But is she also Racer X's girlfriend? Speed can't remember knowing anything like that, though they do seem familiar with each other.

Maybe Minx is to Racer X the same way Trixie is to Speed. Someone might think Trixie is his girlfriend, but it's not like that at all. She's his best friend, sure -- after all, they grew up together -- but that isn't the same thing, Speed is finding. Somehow he hasn't managed to kiss her after that first time in the Victory Circle at the Grand Prix a few years ago. She seemed blue about it for a while, but now she talks cars and racing to him like nothing ever happened. He's relieved that she's gotten past what might have been, because he can't picture his home or his family without her.

"No, you don't," Speed declares, and Racer X laughs again.

"I'm going to have to watch you the next time we're at a celebration together, aren't I?"

Speed shrugs, and tries to sit up. "You already do. Watch me, I mean."

Racer X's mouth tightens at that, and Speed manages to heave himself onto his feet.

"You don't have to," he says, trailing off as he assumes Racer X will know what he's talking about when he reaches for that mask.

"You know why I wear it --"

"You don't have to wear it with me," Speed clarifies as he fumbles to get it off.

Racer X sighs and reaches back to remove the mask himself. "Happy now?"

"Sure," Speed says agreeably. He sways a little as he reaches out to draw his fingertip along Racer X's cheekbone. Nope, not like Rex's. He touches Racer X's bottom lip just in case. No, that's different too. And his chin, the shape of it, that's nothing like Speed's brother's chin.

By the time Speed is tracing the shell of Racer X's ear, the other man's breathing has gotten heavier. "What do you think you're doing?" he asks in a hoarse voice.

"Just checking something."

"Found what you're looking for?"

"It's like I said the last time."

"Going to let me in on what's going on inside that head of yours?"

"Just thinking. We make a good team," Speed returns in a whisper.

Then Racer X is leaning forward, and Speed is moving to meet him. The kiss that comes right after is nothing like any kiss Speed has had before, demanding and possessive and absolutely overwhelming.

Another kiss has them pressing together, and Speed's noise of surprise is muffled before it has the chance to turn into a moan. They move together like they've been doing this for a long time, even though for Speed it's the first time with anyone. They fall to the bed easily, and though if Speed stops to think it should probably be awkward, every touch and sound and breath fits them together like they were made for this.

All of it is perfect, like the high of spinning into position as the leader of the pack in a race, or the rush of the crowd's roar when they're cheering only for you. It's so good that it's only after they've both started to take off their clothes that Speed remembers a funny thing from the conversation they were just having.

"You called me Speedy," he says, his lips barely a breath away from Racer X's.

"What?" Racer X's hair has gotten tousled, and his mouth looks a little swollen and a lot inviting as he pulls back for a moment.

"Before," Speed notes as he runs his hands down Racer X's arms. His mind feels foggy but somehow this seems like an important point he has to bring up right this minute. "I don't know how come I didn't say anything when you did, but the only one who ever called me Speedy before was --"

Racer X surges forward to kiss him again, and the only words Speed says after that are yes and oh and please.

*~*~*

Maybe he would have liked to have found his brother after so many years of believing him gone, Speed thinks the next morning as he wakes up with the shadow of a headache and the still lingering satisfaction of what happened last night. But obviously that wasn't how things played out.

Sunlight filters in through the gauzy curtains giving him a chance to take a better look at Racer X's face than ever before while the other man sleeps unaware.

Speed reaches out and, without waking him, runs his thumb across Racer X's strong jaw.

He can't have any regrets, he decides; not when what he's found in Racer X is so much more than he's ever expected.

*~*~* The End *~*~*


End file.
